Sudeep D'Souza

In his autobiography Steve Jobs said "The people in the Indian countryside don't use their intellect like we do, they use their intuition instead, and their intuition is far more developed than in the rest of the world. Intuition is a very powerful thing, more powerful than intellect, in my opinion. That's had a big impact on my work," Jobs later recalled to Walter Issacson, the biographer. We see this in everyday life - the Indian intuition. If you observe how traffic moves on Indian roads it looks chaotic and crazy. It looks like everyone is going to crash into one another and we are going to have one big crazy pile up. But we defy reality - there is a method in the madness, there is an implicit understanding between the drivers and pedestrians of what each one is going to do next. Before you drive on Indian roads you have this feeling that its impossible to drive and that you will probably kill a million people if you drive. Hence there is a deep reluctance to ...

A couple of years ago I got a notice mailed to my house about a traffic offense that I supposedly committed. I contested that I was not even in that place at that time and I could confidently say this because there was no evidence. I am sure this must have been happening quite a lot. So there was an improvement in the process. While I was driving through one of the busy junctions in Hyderabad, I watched this police man running behind vehicles photographing them as they commited the offense. I belive that even this could be contested too since you managed to get only a photograph of the vehicle and it would be hard to capture the entire act of the offense being commited as it was a snapshot in time. There was an idea to put CCTVs at traffic junctions but I am not sure how successful that was as the CCTV would not have really been flexible and the public would have got smart to not commit the offense at the traffic signal. There is a new trend now that is sure to come to India ver...

In the recent past I have got booked for traffic offenses 3 different times in 3 different ways. I am not sure if the police have got smarter and stricter or have I been breaking the law a bit too frequently of late. Anyway what I found interesting is the different ways that you can get booked now which is what I want to talk to you about in this post. Method 1 - Caught in the act This is the traditional method. I jumped a traffic light and landed straight into the waiting sub inspector on the other side of the traffic signal.My bike key got confiscated till I paid up my Rs. 100 and I drove away. Well this is the time tested way where you get caught red handed and you have nothing to say to bail yourself out. Method 2 - Notice is mailed to your house I was surprised a couple of days ago when I opened my mail box at home and I find this inland letter from the traffic police claiming that I was in a no parking zone on April 6th and that I can go online to http://www.esevaonline.c...

I went out today after a long time on a weekday and the state of the traffic on the roads did not really make it a pleasure to drive on. Anyway it got me thinking about an interview I read the other day in the newspaper and the interview was with someone from the transport department of London and he said that the experience that they have had with highly populated areas is that the more roads they built the more they got filled up and there came a point where they could not build any more roads and it has now reached a point where they have a congestion tax to go into highly populated areas like Central London in your own vehicle. Which made me wonder - "Why can't we learn from other cities?". When we had traffic jams we built flyovers, we then broadened the roads (not consistently many a time - some places are broad and some are not thus turning the not so broad areas into bottlenecks) and all of this eased the traffic flow a great deal temporarily. But what happened is...

I was driving the other day and I noticed this truck filled with sand in front of me and a couple of things caught my eye. The spelling of power "break" (should have been brake) and I thought to myself if this guy even nicks my car I will for sure be broken - so it is quite appropriate. Notice the guy sleeping on top and relaxing - this is a moving truck and he looks like he is sun bathing on top Well thats India for you - you never know what you are going to see next. So when in India always keep your eyes open and your camera shutter off :).

One of the principles in Dr. Eliyahu Goldratt's Theory of Constraints goes like “The speed of your system is only as fast as the slowest process that you have in your system”. And this simple truth has enabled many large organizations achieve fantastic productivity. I would now like to apply this theory to my pet topic of late and that is to the Roads of Hyderabad. Let us consider the system to be the road network. In this network the speed at which the traffic will flow will depend on the speed of the traffic at the narrowest portion of the road. So if someone asks a question how many vehicles will move in an hour from Point A to Point B, its fairly simple, find out what is the size of the narrowest portion of the road between point A and point B and calculate how many vehicles can get through there in an hour and you have your answer. The Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad has been doing a spate of road widening activities of late – matter of fact I think they have gone berserk –...

There have been a few comments that have been posted on my last couple of articles on How do we ease traffic ? and Why do we have clogged up roads ? . My line of thought for solving this problem of high density of traffic and low density of roads that our city has is that we need to have a good public transportation system that consists of not one but a whole array of existing and new transportation systems that work in a well coordinated and synchronized manner instead of trying to compete with each other. I admit we have got ourselves into a mess in terms of bad city planning, lack of regard for zoning laws, frivolous FSI, rampant bribery in the roads and buildings divisions and arbitrary decisions being made trying to solve the problems that exist. Due to all these things we have a transportation issue on our hands which would not have existed (hopefully) if all the above had not taken place. What I am stating is that we are only making a bigger mess by taking short term decisions ...

As a follow up to my last article on how road widening and building bridges are very short term solution I would like to answer some interesting thoughts that an anonomous comment has raised. The first fact that was raised is "Each year, Hyderabad city is adding about 2 lakh vehicles." - well you can't dispute fact. But lets ask ourselves why are there so many vehicles being added And then the comment goes on to list as to why is there such an increase in vehicles and that is - "This increase is not merely because there is no public transportation system. It is to a significant extent because of credit markets." "Hyderabad is being redesigned for the enjoyment and profiteering of some 1 per cent or less of the urban population. And nobody objects to this because most people imagine that they will somehow be within that one per cent if not today, well then very soon, they think they will get there. " We have moved along from a socialist economy of the...

Traffic in Hyderabad is getting worse each day and the solution every one can come up with is road widening and building a flyover. But these are such short term measures - one shorter than the other. The reason I say one is shorter than the other is for the following reasons. Let me first tell you the drawbacks of road widening - They are taking away space from the driveway of the building. So where does every one exit their vehicles - there is just one place the road. - They are reducing the parking in the buildings - so where do you park your vehicle - just one place the road. - They are removing the sidewalk - so where do you walk - just one place the road. As you can see that the road that just got expanded at the expense of the tax payer has got used for all the things except what it was meant to be used for. This is a story played out on so many of the roads that have been widened yet there are more and more proposals to widen roads. Road widening is no solution. To a lesser ex...

Do you think you can find your way through the maze below. This is one of the main thoroughfares through the city of Hyderabad. This is typically what happens - it rains - the traffic signals go off - the cops stay out of the rain - since the signals are off everyone takes off from the stop line as if its the start of a race to the other side of the road - the first few lucky ones get through - the others end up somewhere in the maze shown and all the other unlucky ones get stuck somewhere way behind. Now you might wonder what happens if you dont start and wait for the traffic signals to start again or a cop to come and direct the traffic. There are few of the many things that may happen - you may have to make an appointment with the ENT specialist to get your ears checked up due to the cacophony of horns behind you or you might just get run over or worse the traffic would just reach you and surround you from all sides like an octopus wanting to give you that all encompassing hug. Why ...